Thanks to everyone who joined us and helped out at this year's Halloween Family Picnic in the Hakushima park.
All the photos from this year's Halloween party are now on Flickr for you to see and feel free to comment on your favorites and of course download pictures you want to keep for yourself. Just choose "all sizes" at the top of a picture and download it to the desktop of your own computer. We took the photos big enough for good print quality if you want to get prints made too.
Rebecca graciously donated her photography talent and took some beautiful photographs of the event, have a look at her photos here:
Halloween Family Picnic 2009
And Flo, another talented photographer also donated her time and helped us raise money for UNICEF at the party this year. Her photos can be seen here:
Halloween Family Picnic 2009
Flo and Rebecca were amazing to donate their time and effort to capture such beautiful photos of all the families at the event, thank you both so much!
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Bee's Knees Kindycare
English speaking staff for your pre-school kids in Hiroshima is now available from the Hiroshima YMCA.
This is a well trained and staffed facility as the Hiroshima YMCA also runs the international pre-school with their English immersion education for kids 3-6.
There are other English programs available for English-speaking and Japanese speaking kids who want to be in an international environment learning in English. Contact the staff in the main red-brick building with any questions or concerns you might have.
Fees
"We offer a fun loving, warm experience for your children. If it's just an hour or the whole day, we have trained staff ready to take care of your child."
This is a well trained and staffed facility as the Hiroshima YMCA also runs the international pre-school with their English immersion education for kids 3-6.
There are other English programs available for English-speaking and Japanese speaking kids who want to be in an international environment learning in English. Contact the staff in the main red-brick building with any questions or concerns you might have.
Fees
- For kids up to 2 years: ¥800/60 mins
- For kids from 3 years: ¥600/60 mins
- For kids 0-2 years: ¥5,000/full day or monthly for ¥42,000
- For kids from 3 years: ¥3,800/full day or ¥31,500 monthly
Monday, October 26, 2009
Build Positive Exercise Experiences With Your Kids
I hope to see many people enjoying the upcoming annual Peace Marathon (nowhere near marathon distances BTW- all running races in Japan are referred to as "marathons").
We have been doing the race with friends since before we had kids and now that we have kids, we are continuing to enjoy the event with our kids in tow.
At young ages, we try to keep the emphasis on having fun much more than competiting, so it is events like the Peace Marathon where we can do the 5km together jogging and walking together with a group of fun loving people happy to be spending the day doing a sports event. Many of the people at the event run and walk in costumes from the fun and simple to the extravagant and truly bizarre.
As it is the week after Halloween, we also enjoying dressing up in costume for the event. This seems to be a good way to get people letting their guard down and talking with us.
I hope you can find ways to enjoy sports and the outdoors with your kids.
We have been doing the race with friends since before we had kids and now that we have kids, we are continuing to enjoy the event with our kids in tow.
At young ages, we try to keep the emphasis on having fun much more than competiting, so it is events like the Peace Marathon where we can do the 5km together jogging and walking together with a group of fun loving people happy to be spending the day doing a sports event. Many of the people at the event run and walk in costumes from the fun and simple to the extravagant and truly bizarre.
As it is the week after Halloween, we also enjoying dressing up in costume for the event. This seems to be a good way to get people letting their guard down and talking with us.
I hope you can find ways to enjoy sports and the outdoors with your kids.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Halloween in Hiroshima 2009
We are just about one week away from Halloween in Hiroshima this year. Do you have a costume for you and your kids yet? Did you get a big orange pumpkin to carve into a Jack-o-lantern (this year 2 Japanese based online grocers: FBC and The Flying Pig are both selling pumpkins online as well as decorations, candy and other halloween treats).
All over the city, the 100 yen shops seem to be Halloween crazy this year and you can get lots of bargains there.
In town, Tokyu Hands (Aioi dori) and Claires accessories (Hondori) have lots of costumes available, Toys R Us and Rubies Japan (online) as well as Yahoo auctions and Rakuten are all filled with online retailers selling costumes, decorations and more. If you are looking for last minute bargains however, look at ebay in the UK and US as you can get much better prices including shipping this year since the yen is so strong compared to the dollar and pound.
This year, there are sooooo many events happening on the same day all around Hiroshima and in our neighboring Iwakuni. I guess it isn't every year that the 31st actually lands on the weekend, so everyone is making the most of it.
Iwakuni Halloween Party at Marifu Park, Iwakuni (Yamaguchi prefecture)
If you live in the Iwakuni area, or are interested in a real American style Halloween party that goes into the night, with pumpkin carving and lots of candies and games for the kids- then please join Jackie Allen and her friends and helpers in Iwakuni at Marifu park (near Iwakuni station) from 4pm-6pm on the 31st. See more Iwakuni Halloween details here.
If you are in Hiroshima city, please join us for the 4th annual (at this location) Halloween family picnic in the park from 11:00-2:30.
Later in the evening, if you can find a babysitter, join us at Chinatown's 10th annual Halloween Party for the adult's costume party from 9pm till late (or early).
All over the city, the 100 yen shops seem to be Halloween crazy this year and you can get lots of bargains there.
In town, Tokyu Hands (Aioi dori) and Claires accessories (Hondori) have lots of costumes available, Toys R Us and Rubies Japan (online) as well as Yahoo auctions and Rakuten are all filled with online retailers selling costumes, decorations and more. If you are looking for last minute bargains however, look at ebay in the UK and US as you can get much better prices including shipping this year since the yen is so strong compared to the dollar and pound.
This year, there are sooooo many events happening on the same day all around Hiroshima and in our neighboring Iwakuni. I guess it isn't every year that the 31st actually lands on the weekend, so everyone is making the most of it.
Iwakuni Halloween Party at Marifu Park, Iwakuni (Yamaguchi prefecture)
If you live in the Iwakuni area, or are interested in a real American style Halloween party that goes into the night, with pumpkin carving and lots of candies and games for the kids- then please join Jackie Allen and her friends and helpers in Iwakuni at Marifu park (near Iwakuni station) from 4pm-6pm on the 31st. See more Iwakuni Halloween details here.
If you are in Hiroshima city, please join us for the 4th annual (at this location) Halloween family picnic in the park from 11:00-2:30.
Later in the evening, if you can find a babysitter, join us at Chinatown's 10th annual Halloween Party for the adult's costume party from 9pm till late (or early).
Saturday, October 17, 2009
They Might Be Giants- Meet the Elements
They might be Giants always comes up with great songs and videos for kids and if you have kids interested in science (or have potential to be interested) also fun for us adults too, I never understood the periodic table and other science stuff before.
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